spooge: ok listen. i think you're now forgetting about what's art all about... giving viewer so strong impression that he just has that picture in his mind after that and while looking he feels inside there or atleast feels the same as artist felt while looking at the model or at the sea or whatever... depends what's on the painting right?... I'm not looking at the names in the forum while looking at the pictures. ok i see your picture and i think hm. that's spooge's style, he would do something like that i check out - yep that you and that's it. You're concentrating on the technique you've learned kinda proving to yourself and maybe to other also that you can draw whatever you want using that technique and nothing more.
look at that gray picture there's something on the wall... in the upper corner of the picture.. some painting or something else? it keeps bugging because that guy is looking there and you putted a lot of spots in that area darker and lighter and all without a reason, i mean would sargent do that? you put so much effort in drawing something behind guy's hand (on the first pic) and still it's pointless it's wrong compositionally and you don't even get what it is... though your simulation of details demands looking at that place... last pic ok you drew a guy...
i remember how your older skeches looked like... they were truly impressive. you were more into telling people the feeling of the picture the mood. and now you putting some random blurry lines, strokes which ruin even the impression of real... hm look at the smoking guy's shoulder... who needs those lighter lines there?
just look at the pictures you used to draw... arthur defeated
maybe i can explain it better next time... when i'll think more about it... i think i'm right about what i said
but you know thechnically you're the best anyhow

First off, let me just say that I'm not jumping to Spooge's defense here just because he's who he is. I think that what you said seems to "assume" a lot about him that you probably don't know. Who's to say he's forgetting what art is all about? What IS art all about? Do you know? Apparantly you have some sort of concrete definition in your little artist's dictionary that I've never heard before. Personally I've always felt that art is constantly changing/evolving... it's what a person makes of it. You're familiar with the phrase "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" right? Maybe you just don't like where Spooge's style has evolved to (even though this is a thread about QUICK paintings). But for every person like you that thinks his work is no longer "fresh", I'm sure there are 5 more that absolutely love it. What you said sort of strikes me as rather insulting... no matter who you said it to.

Jezebel: i said taht it is only my opinion and still spooge wanted me to explain MY opinion so there's no use to defend him from me... i've just been waching his drawing since i came to "community" and that's it... my opinion shouldn't matter to those who're not interested in all possible critics. I've been asked few times to read lectures in universities only because my point of view is completed and well explained though totally different and rather bold that main... all-accepted points of view. About affects of moral and ethical problems on evolution of art and technology. about principle of chaos in evolution. and more topics like that. fact that i'm not so fluent in english doesn't mean that i don't know what i'm talking about.

And i'm still interested in spooge's opinion about his pictures. In simple words: instead of powerness of the image we get action pose or "dramatic" atmosphere in the image.

and come-on i'm not offending... just saying my point of view... and i'm not saying that his style got worse he's just concentrating on different aspects of the painting progress. i hope that i'm making myself more or less clear

Portrait cost about 40 minutes, the landscapes 10 minutes each...bear with me as I only cot that wacom 2 days ago :þ

And, especially because I only just started painting 'digitally' please give me pointers on what to improve Self critics: the portrait could have had more dramatic lighting and the skin coloring is not all that great. The landscapes could have had more expression, maybe more detail.

If I may say, I feel partly as m703-324 does. Spooge is definately the best digipainter but the latest paintings have felt like just plain paintings (as if spooges paintings could be "just paintings"). Those haven't raised any particular feeling in me as the older ones have done. Maybe he has pushed a bit too much experimental and forgotten something. Speculations, speculations. Maybe it's just us we have gone bad. We wan't more. We've used to get better WOWs when spooge has pushed things a bit farther. Now when you see "newest spooge" and haven't dropped your eyes reason must be overexposure we have had. Spooge has been overproductive. Guess??
I have to shut up now, spooge what you think?

Woo-haa, we have more people from the Finnish Garden State? I mean, Espoo is the choice of your lifes - if you ask me, we should have an Espoo drawing contest - the winner would get a free weekend at the Garden hotel in the Garden state!

bit of topic..
I think they renovated that glorious Garden hotel some time ago, no? Well the choice of our lives in Espoo: If thou shalt born here, thous shalt die here -- you can live as engineer with wife 2 kids, golden retriever, volvo and house with four by four meter "luxurious" garden in a neigbourhood build as tight as can be. or you can die drinking bitter bought with your last welfare check.
Negative? No. Damn I just want to get out..

And I'm not gonna compete -- unless you throw a good challenge enough..

I must say, that I entirely disagree with your comment regarding Craig's work. I think that Craig is always thinking deeper about what he is painting than the surface "technical" stuff. I think he has progressed far beyond that as an artist. In fact, I think he tries conciously to stay AWAY from being overly technical. I see lots of mood/feeling/emotion/atmosphere in almost everything I've seen him paint. His choice of colour, value, subject, setting, balance, etc. all play into that. I think that fact that Craig leaves a lot of his stuff "unpolished" goes to show that he really doesn't give two steamin' turds how it appears TECHNICALLY and he wants to show us that art is supposed to run much deeper than that. I for one can clearly see that. To clarify, I'm not saying this to kiss up to Craig, I'm saying this because I strongly believe what I am arguing is drastically closer to the truth that what you are arguing.

Anyway, everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Mine just happens to be contradictory to yours.